Sunday, February 21, 2010

Sunday Salon: Empire State Book Festival

I've been looking forward to the FIRST Empire State Book Festival for almost a year now. It's conveniently happening right here in Albany on April 9 & 10, 2010. Even better: it's FREE. The New York Library Assocation has done a fantastic job putting this event together. I was already excited, but this week I discovered the list of authors who will be attending, and now I'm even more excited. In an attempt to lure you other northeasterners to Albany (during the read-a-thon, no less), here are the highlights:

Karen Abbott, author of Sin in the Second City

Brunonia Barry, author of The Lace Reader

Andy Borowitz (one of the funniest people on Twitter, among tother things).

David Ebershoff, author of The 19th Wife

Masha Hamilton, author of 31 Hours

Ann Hood

Marilyn Johnson, author of the fabulous This Book Is Overdue!

Sally Koslow, author of The Late Lamented Molly Marx (one of my favorite reads last summer)

Gregory Maguire

Julie Metz, author of Perfection

Elizabeth Noble

Cathleen Schine

Da Chen

There are lots of author great authors coming. Check the list for your favorites! There are also some fantastic panels and programs. My favorites? Judging a Book By Its Cover, a panel on This Book Is Overdue!, and a panel on women's fiction hosted by the Bethanne Patrick, a.k.a the Book Maven of the Book Studio!

Doesn't this event sound wonderful? If you're coming, let me know. I'd love to show you all around Albany and organize a get-together.

7 comments:

Oh, wow ... that DOES sound like a great book festival! What an exciting line-up of authors. Sadly, my already-committed forays to the Empire State (BEA, BBC, and BlogHer maybe) prevent me from making the trip ... :(

Oh, enjoy! Attending the LA Times Festival of Books at UCLA has become an annual ritual for me. Looks like you have some great authors coming to yours - still waiting for the program to be announced for LATFoB, which is 2 weeks after the Empire State Book Festival.

I can't wait for this festival. I'll be there with three great librarians from This Book Is Overdue -- one of the Connecticut Four, Kathy Shaughnessy of St. Johns/Queens who is doing some incredible outreach as a librarian to missionaries, and David Smith, the writers' librarian from NYPL -- and I'll look for you.ant